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our teens know and the one in which we adults grew up. Four par ticular areas illustrate this con trast: 1. Affluence. Most teens have known nothing but unparalleled prosperity and national affluence. We have moved them to suburban shelters and surrounded them with beautiful homes and lawns and parks. They are raised in material istic security. In contrast, the child hood of many parents was domin ated by the great depression. They did not throw tantrums over failure to get the latest toy on the market. The great concern was that there would be something substantial to eat at the family table. 2. Technology. Today ’ s teens take fantastic te c h n o lo g ic a l ad vances as much for granted as their parents take the automobile. They are using terms and studying in fields that did not exist when their parents were teens. The R.C.A. Corporation estimates that 80% of the products they sell today did not exist a decade ago. Many of the important job opportunities that will be available in ten years are not known yet. 3. Child Training. Child-rearing practices have changed over the last twenty years. Many Christian p a ren ts have had to s tru g g le against the floodtide of permissive ness. Parental authority, required by the Scriptures, has been greatly weakened. Children aren't told any more to do things because father says so; they demand reason, and by the time they are adolescent, it had better be a good reason, too! 4. Educational advance. The availability of massive amounts of information have made our chil dren more knowledgeable and, in some cases, more competent than their parents were at their age. So it is a very different world. But the tragedy in the contrast is that in this new world, many par ents have ceased to be parents.
frontation with those vigo rous, healthy, attractive, carefree, beauti ful, irresponsible youth. When they are nice, respectful, appreciative, and happy, they are a joy to have around the house. But let them be come complaining, demand ing , critical, miserable — and then un derstanding and sympathy come with more difficulty. “ Don’t they know how good they've got it?” is the exasperated lament of such a parent. Of course teens do not appreci ate being young, any more than their parents did at that age. It is only in retrospection that parents come to the conclusion that their days of youth were so joyous and carefree. They have forgotten much of the anxiety, the doubts and fears, the loneliness of being young. Just as many parents are saying, “ I can’t talk to my teen,” teens are saying, “ I can’t talk to my parents.” “ Talking to my parents is a drag,” said one teen, “ they just pull age on you. There is never a real dis cussion.” From the teen’s vantage point, they see adults as having it made. Unlike themse lves, adults have found their place in the world; they have solved their identity problems (or so teens think), and they have money and power which, teens rea son, give freedom and indepen dence — two things teens desper ately want. In contrast, the teen faces a long, arduous and uncer tain apprenticeship, and he cannot be certain it will come out well. So both generations have their underlying anxieties which make it easy for them to misunderstand, envy, and resent each other. Although most of these psycho logical forces have been at work through many generations, it is clear that the generation gap is greater today than it was even a short time ago. Why is this? We must recognize that there is a great contrast between the world SEPTEMBER, 1 9 7 0
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